Petard (Age of Empires III)

This article is about the unit in Age of Empires III. For the similar unit in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors, see Petard (Age of Empires II).

PetardNitro Petard
Unit information
Introduced in	The WarChiefs
Type	Infantry Siege unit
Civilization	Europeans United States
Age	Fortress Age Industrial Age (Nitro Petard)
Training
Trained at	Artillery Foundry (Petard)
Food	50 (Petard)
Wood	100 (Petard)
Training time	40 seconds (Petard)
Statistics
Hit points	225 750 (Nitro Petard)
Resists	40% vs. Melee
Speed	4.0
Line of Sight	15
Population	1
XP train bounty	15
XP bounty	15
Melee attack
Damage	6
Rate of Fire	1.5
Siege attack
Damage	1,600 4,500 (Nitro Petard)
Rate of Fire	3.0

“	Siege warrior that dies when it attacks buildings, but does lots of damage.	”
—In-game description

The Petard is an infantry siege unit in Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs that can be trained at the Artillery Foundry once the Fortress Age is reached. Similar to the Age of Empires II counterpart, it is a suicide unit that can deal massive damage to buildings.

Petards are available to the United States and European civilizations except John Black's Mercenaries (Act II: Ice campaign) and Knights of St. John (Act I: Blood campaign).

Overview

Unction boosted regular Petards with all available upgrades are capable of inflicting 3257 damage versus buildings in a single explosion. They will also possess 393 hit points, 4.40 speed and double (12) their usual melee attack power. However their hand attacks are still ineffective in actual combat.

Russian Petards can cause up to 2800 damage with the "Ransack" Home City Card.

Upgrades

The Petard is automatically upgraded in the Industrial Age and Imperial Age.

+25% hit points and attack

+50% hit points and attack

Civilization differences

• The Germans can ship four Nitro Petards through the "Demolition Squad" card which have more than thrice the hit points and almost triple the siege attack of regular Petards, allowing them to destroy most buildings in one hit.
• Asian civilizations can get Petards by allying with the British and Portuguese at the Consulate, which provides shipments that includes Petards listed below.
  • British (Chinese and Indians): 5 Petards
  • Portuguese (Indians and Japanese): Exploration Fleet (1 Caravel with 3 Petards)

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Buildings
Weak vs.	Units, especially cavalry and artillery
Improvements
Hit points	Thin Red Line (+20%, British only) Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%)
Attack	Yoga (+5%)
Speed	Military Drummers (+10%) Tilly's Discipline (+20%, Germans only) Quechuan Mountaineering (+20%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
Sight	Town Watch (+2)
Creation speed	Standing Army (-25%) Quechuan Diet (-25%)
Penalties	Thin Red Line (-25% speed, British only) Coffee Trade (-10% speed, Dutch only) Tilly's Discipline (+10% cost, Germans only)

Home City Cards

Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Petard

Green: TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team Chinese Card Description Age HC level Recruit Wokou +10 Petards Ships a Wokou Junk with 10 Petards; costs 1,000 coin 25 Dutch Card Description Age HC level TEAM Infantry Hitpoints Infantry get +15% hit points 10 6 Petards Ships 6 Petards 10 Europeans Card Description Age HC level Engineering School Artillery, Grenade Trooper, Abus Gun, and Petard train time -30%; Heavy Cannon and Great Bombard train time -10% 25 Fencing School Infantry train time -40% 10 The Engineering School card is available to French, Ottomans, Portuguese, and Swedes. The Fencing School card is not available to the Ottomans. Germans Card Description Age HC level Demolition Squad Ships 4 Nitro Petards +4 Uhlans 40 Indians Card Description Age HC level TEAM Shivaji's Tactics All units get +5% hit points and attack 25 Iroquois Card Description Age HC level TEAM Scout Infantry Infantry get +8 LOS 10 Russians Card Description Age HC level Ransack Infantry get +50% siege attack 25 TEAM Dueling School Infantry train time -25%; banner army train time -12% 25 Spanish Card Description Age HC level TEAM Inquisition All units get +10 LOS 10 Swedes Card Description Age TEAM Engineering School Artillery, Grenade Trooper, Abus Gun, Petard, Flamethrower, Black Flag Army, Mongolian Army, Ram, and Mantlet train time -15%; Heavy Cannon, Rocket, Great Bombard, and Flying Crow train time -5%

Trivia

• When the Petard attacks a building, it shows that the soldiers who carry the bomb will attempt to escape from the explosion, but do not succeed and die.
• Despite the model featuring two men carrying the bomb, the Petard only uses a single population slot.
• Although Petards are excellent for destroying buildings, they are very weak at fighting other units by using hand combat. Petards cannot blow up on units to kill them, making them defenseless to any soldiers.

History

“

The term petard first emerged during medieval times, referring to a small and notoriously unstable explosive device similar in concept and usage to the modern grenade. The name probably derives from the Latin "petar," which means, "to break wind" (an example of the military mind's wry sense of humor.) To be "hoisted by one's own petard" is a phrase commonly thought to mean something along the lines of "being hung with your own rope"; or, to stay true to the actual context of an explosive device, to be blown up by your own bomb. The saying is derived from Shakespeare's Hamlet. The bard wrote: "For 'tis the sport to have the engineer Hoist with his own petar"

”

Gallery

An in-game Petard

A large Petard explosion

Unction boosted Imperial Petard